New artists, new works and inventive new productions of classics join forces in this year's just-announced BAM Next Wave Festival lineup. Among the highlights:
The U.S. premieres of a theatricalization of Samuel Beckett's early radio play Embers and the Royal Court production of Beckett's Not I, Footfalls and Rockaby
The U.S. premiere of Robert Wilson's Shakespeare's Sonnets with music by Rufus Wainwright
The Source, a music-theater work by Ted Hearne and Mark Doten based on Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning's leak of government documents to Wikileaks
A Dutch-language production by Tonneelgroep Amsterdam of Tony Kushner's Angels in America
A return engagement of Pina Bausch's Kontakthof
The New York premiere of Théâtre de la Ville's production of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author
Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films, a multimedia performance event with 15 never-before-seen films taken by Andy Warhol in the 1960s on his 16mm Bolex camera
Meredith Monk's newest work, On Behalf of Nature
The Etudes, Phillip Glass's complete Piano Etudes
Songwriter Gabriel Kahane's The Ambassador, commissioned by BAM, based on his new album and directed by John Tiffany (Once, Black Watch, The Glass Menagerie
The Festival runs September 9 through December 20 and includes 30 theater, music, dance and film productions along with a series of 13 concert engagements honoring Nonesuch Records, the wide-ranging label marking its 50th anniversary this year. The Nonesuch artists performing include Youssou N'Dour, Brad Mehldau & Chris Thile, Devendra Banhart, Caetano Veloso, Natalie Merchant, Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet.
BAM Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo said, "We are proud to feature seven world premiere productions this season and to include BAM commissions of new work by Gabriel Kahane, Vijay Iyer, the Andy Warhol Museum and Dean Wareham, Ivy Baldwin, Big Dance Theater, and a co-commission of Bryce Dessner with our partners Brooklyn Youth Chorus. We are also thrilled to celebrate 50th anniversaries with our colleagues at Nonesuch Records and with Meredith Monk."
